Legacies on the Landscape

Description

This project is a collaborative effort by archaeologists and ecologists
to investigate the legacy of prehistoric and modern human land use on
the mesas of Agua Fria National Monument north of the Phoenix Basin.
This desert grassland and riparian ecosystem has experienced two
intense pulses of human use in the past 750 years: a sizeable
agricultural occupation in the 1300s and livestock grazing since the
mid 1800s. We are working to reconstruct key ecological and
archaeological features of the landscape before, during, and after (in
the case of the indigenous occupation) these pulses of human land-use.
Our overarching questions are:

- How did 14th century economics, politics, and religious practices
influence the ways in which people used the Agua Fria landscape?
- Which prehistoric activities left ecological legacies that are detectable on contemporary landscapes?
- Which ecological conditions make an ecosystem more or less prone to long-lasting human-induced disturbance?
- Can we still see effects of an increase in ecological patchiness we
would expect in association with the 14th century occupation?
- How do legacies of prehistoric land use persist in the face of intensive grazing?

The goal of the project is to build theory about what types of human
disturbances leave legacies over different time scales, and gain
insights into the ways that today’s actions can affect future
ecological systems.

To begin addressing our research questions project personnel have spent
two field seasons collecting a diversity of ecological and
archaeological data. These data include the distribution of woody
plants, small mammals, herbaceous plants, agaves, rocks, and artifacts
at several survey locations. Additionally, the architectural growth of
two prehistoric villages has been reconstructed through analyses of the
wall alignments and the bonding and abutting patterns at the corners of
rooms. Prehistoric agricultural fields have been located and several
were selected for additional herbaceous plant surveys, soil analyses,
and seed bank studies. At a landscape scale, one study has tracked
woody plant expansion utilizing historic aerial photos and another
developed a GIS model of potential prehistoric agricultural land.
Research is continuing and project members are working on publishing
the preliminary results of our research (2005).

The Legacies project has a strong educational component, involving both
graduate and undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research in
the field and laboratory. Courses taught in 2004 and 2005 have provided
hands-on training in archaeological and ecological research and
fieldwork that have resulted in several graduate and undergraduate
theses and professional papers.